The Union of Registry and Notary Workers (STRN) has criticized the recent announcement by the government regarding additional resources, labeling it a “smokescreen” that fails to address the backlog of pending processes, many of which involve nationality requests.
“I classify this announcement as a diversion tactic; it is regrettable that the Government chooses to create a smokescreen instead of tackling the root of the issue,” stated Arménio Maximino, President of STRN, in a statement to Lusa.
Maximino’s comments come in response to the deployment of 11 technical assistants to the registry and notary services in Porto and Lisbon, aimed at handling the increased demand following the announcement of a project restricting nationality access.
“The technical assistants announced for reinforcing the teams do not handle customer service, lack the competency to analyze nationality processes, and certainly do not make any decisions,” explained Arménio Maximino.
The “addition of technical assistants is only for administrative tasks that are needed but do not address the problem at hand,” he added, emphasizing the shortage of registry officials who review nationality requests and the conservators who make the final decisions.
In Porto, current staffing levels include eight conservators and 10 registry officials, compared to the planned 18 and 29 positions, respectively.
In the central services in Lisbon, the plan calls for 40 conservators, but only 18 are currently employed, leaving a shortfall of 22. Additionally, while 184 registry officials are needed, only 104 are present, indicating a deficit of 74,” Arménio Maximino further elaborated.
“We have a chronic deficit in these two specific registry offices that the Government has yet to address,” he added.
On another note, the IRN aims to “hide the queues,” and “instructions were given to reinforce the service counters,” said Arménio Maximino.
“Today, registry officials who were reviewing processes have stopped doing so and have instead taken positions at the counters,” stated the union leader.
This change will enable more customer interactions than usual, but it will result in fewer resources available to process requests internally, he warned.
“Those registry officials now handling service counters will obviously reduce citizens’ waiting times and will increase the number of incoming requests, while not reviewing them, which is likely to worsen backlogs and delays,” he predicted.
Currently, services are reviewing nationality requests from 2021, highlighting the “persistent delays in services” due to a “lack of staff,” emphasized Arménio Maximino.
The Government announced that as of today, additional resources will be provided to the Central Registry Office in Lisbon with four technical assistants and the Central Archive in Porto with seven, as a measure to expedite the processing of nationality applications.
In a statement, the IRN and the Ministry of Justice added that to “make the handling of processes more efficient, the Central Archive’s service counter in Porto will temporarily close its in-person services to focus its resources on requests received by mail and online.”
“Submitting nationality requests by mail, by the applicant, or online, by legal representatives, are more convenient and faster options, eliminating unnecessary trips to service counters,” they noted.
Last week, the STRN claimed that the announced changes to the nationality law are causing a “rush to the registry offices” for new submissions, in addition to the 700,000 already pending nationwide.
According to union data, the increase in new requests occurs both “in online submissions—handled by lawyers and solicitors—and in person at various service points: the central registry office, the Central Archive in Porto, and other Civil Registry Offices across the country.”
